I have often thought of life as made up of various jigsaw pieces. I would use the same comparison to describe any major project that I have seen evolve. There are two key ingredients that determine whether or not you manage to place all the pieces together.

The first and obvious requirement is that you need to have all the pieces on board – if one part is missing, you can never form the entire picture although you could imagine what it could have looked like if only that missing piece or pieces were there. The second requirement is having the ability to see how the different pieces fit together to form the intended whole, ensuring that the pieces that do complement each other are joined together and that the other pieces that would jar if placed next to one another are kept separate.

The project for Valletta, our capital city, is evolving like a jigsaw puzzle. Government is placing on board different pieces. Unlike the puzzle that we used to get hold of when we were younger, we have not been given, at least officially, all the pieces in one box, and much less the entire picture on the cover to help us place the pieces together.

I guess that would have been too easy! Yet different clear pieces have for the discerning been placed on board already. They include the appointment of world renowned architect Renzo Piano to design City Gate, the Opera House ruins and Freedom Square; commencing the process to draw up plans for Fort St Elmo area; the appointment of Judge Giovanni Bonello as Superintendent of the Palace (signalling correctly that only the President of Malta is to use the Palace for his official duties, but Parliament, the Office of the Attorney General and other offices are to move to other areas); and finally the publication of plans for the Main Guard area.

In this puzzle, the timing at which different jigsaw pieces are placed on board is as important as the pieces themselves. It could just as well have been a game of ‘Cluedo’ where different pieces of evidence emerge in a pattern that induce the investigator to move in the intended direction, whether or not there is a twist at the end of the plot.

The most crucial and also the most talked about piece is left for last. I think it will be placed on board over the next couple of weeks. It’s the piece that will be signed by Renzo Piano but ultimately reflecting what would have been agreed upon with the architect’s client – in this case: Government. It’s the piece that will reveal more rather than less final plans for the entrance to our baroque city as well as what will happen in Freedom Square and over the Opera House Ruins.

Much as I would be surprised not to see Parliament included in this area, I would like to think that common sense will prevail and the Opera House ruins in particular will reflect a decision in favour of culture and the arts, in favour of the tradition that the site invokes, in favour of creating an iconic magnet that really draws people (both Maltese and tourists) to it, and that will respect the fact that Valletta will be the Cultural City of Europe in 2018.

Over the past weeks some persons tried, for their own reasons, to shift the argument about what kind of development to go for at the Opera House ruins into a debate as to whether or not the country should have an Opera House that is dedicated only to classic Opera. Even when the Opera House was still in place until World War II, the theatre was used for different activities related to the performing arts although Opera was then the leading genre. To try to shift the argument in such a direction is at best grossly unfair and at worst an attempt to condition people to reach conclusions on the basis of wrong premises.

I was relieved and satisfied to follow what the Prime Minister had to state on this issue in his latest interview on the TVM programme Dissett where even if understandably he avoided stating what will actually happen on this site or what is his own preference, he went out of his way to be fair towards all those who like myself have not been making the case for an Opera House but the case for a multifunctional centre for the arts and culture. There is a world of difference between the two concepts.

A multifunctional centre for the arts and culture means providing a space that can be as much used for Opera as it can be used for the modern day musical, for major theatre events as for symphonic orchestra, for ballet as for modern choreography, for concerts and happenings as for festivals and celebratory occasions.

This is the breath of fresh air that the entire arts scene and our talented artistes yearn for and deserve.

The jigsaw pieces are falling in place. I am confident that the overall picture that will evolve can and will do us all the prouder for what we would have managed to achieve and to pass on to future generations.

Dr Francis Zammit Dimech is a PN member of parliament